CULTURED MEAT: GROWING MEAT IN THE LAB BY JANE LI
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umans and meat consumption have an extensive evolutionary relationship. Homo sapiens are omnivores with natural preferences for both meat and plant consumption due to the history of hunting and eating meat that helped humans survive food scarcity. Nowadays, meat continues to play an important role in many cultures by contributing to a balanced diet due to its nutritional richness—meat consists of protein, vitamin B12, and more.1 However, meat needs to be farmed and processed before entering the market, and here, a problem arises: the conventional production process of meat negatively impacts the environment. This process requires large crop quantities for animal feed and a high proportion of agricultural land
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for raising animals—more than three-quarters of the world’s arable land.2 Expansion of animal agriculture has posed challenges to the environment due to the emission of massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the air, which was referred to as ‘Livestock’s long shadow’ by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in 2006. Indeed, recent statistics from the FAO show that total emissions from livestock account for 14.5 % of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.3 The conventional production process, focusing on production efficiency, fails to recognize other impacts such as climate change, animal welfare, or sustainability. To mitigate these adverse effects, scientists have developed a biotechnology that advocates for sustainable meat pro-
duction. Implementing this biotechnology, which uses stem cell culturing techniques, could address the significant global threats of industrial livestock farming.4 THE COMPLEXITY OF MEAT Cultured meat is also referred to as in-vitro meat, lab-grown meat, cell-based meat, and clean meat. Although the technology of producing cultured meat for human consumption is relatively new, the idea appeared in many science fiction stories during the nineteenth and twentieth century. In 1930, for instance, the idea was discussed by British statesman Frederick Edwin Smith who predicted: “It will no longer be necessary to go to the extravagant length
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